Why are Dario Argento’s films so compelling? It’s largely due to his knack for matching fantastic, terrifying imagery with amazing music that fully enhances the mood. The Italian writer/director works closely with composers, which has resulted in a number of highly effective horror movie scores. He’s frequently collaborated with the prog rock band Goblin, and soundtracks for two of those films, plus Argento’s team up with one of prog’s most famous and flamboyant figures, are about to be reissued on vinyl—and in lavishly packaged, expanded editions, to boot.

This Friday, Waxwork Records will release enhanced and complete soundtracks for three Dario Argento classics: Profondo Rosso (a/k/a Deep Red (1975), Inferno (1980), and Phenomena (1985). Profondo Rosso is the first Argento film Goblin scored, while the music for Phenomena was composed by Goblin band members, Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Pignatelli, and performed by the group. Inferno is the work of the late Keith Emerson. Waxwork has produced the definitive versions of these soundtracks, with lots of previously unreleased tracks. Each release includes stunning, newly commissioned artwork and cool colored vinyl, with high quality gatefold jackets.

We’ve got a sneak peak at what Waxwork is offering; the majority of these images are making their web premiere.

Dario Argento’s 1975 giallo film, Deep Red (Profondo rosso), stands as one of the auteur’s greatest works. It’s been given the 4K treatment, and the restoration is about to be released on Blu-ray in the US for the first time. We’ve got a preview in the form of a clip, and it’s one of the highlights of the picture. Creepy, scary and so sadistic it’s painful to watch. But in a good way!

Well-known British actor David Hemmings plays Marcus Davy, a professional pianist, who witnesses a brutal murder. Daria Nicolodi is journalist Gianna Brezzi, who, like Marcus, wants to know who committed the murder. As Marcus learns more and more about the case, the body count mounts.

This is the first Argento movie for Nicolodi, who went on to be a regular in his films. Argento and Nicolodi also became a couple, with their daughter, Asia Argento, arriving a year after they met.

For his co-writer, Argento chose Bernardino Zapponi, a frequent cohort of Federico Fellini. It was Zapponi who came up with the idea of incorporating relatable injuries, like begin scalded by hot water, and banging your head.

Argento fans might notice that the theme of faulty human memory, a concept first explored in his debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, is also the central motif of Deep Red.

Alfred Hitchcock was an early influence on Argento, and Psycho most certainly comes to mind here, while the original Italian poster recalls Saul Bass’s artwork for Vertigo.

Argento was disappointed with the Giorgio Gaslini’s score for Deep Red, so he asked Pink Floyd if they’d come aboard; they declined. The director was subsequently given a demo tape of an Italian group called Cherry Five, and was so impressed he hired them. The band would soon change their name to Goblin. The jazz rock score the unit composed and performed for the film is fantastic, and went on to sell millions of copies on vinyl. Argento and Goblin would work together on other pictures, including the director’s follow-up, Suspiria, which resulted in one of the scariest (and most stylish) movies ever made.

The Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) is the second motion picture directed by the maestro of the Italian giallo film, Dario Argento. Cat originally had an ending that was cut before it made it to the big screen, and though the footage is now lost, Dangerous Minds has the script pages, which haven’t been seen publicly before.

Argento’s debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), was such a big hit in the U.S. and elsewhere (though not in Italy), that there was demand for a follow-up, posthaste. The Cat O’ Nine Tails was the result, and in addition to being film #2 for Argento, it’s the second in his “animal trilogy” (Four Flies on Grey Velvet was the third). As was the case with Bird, Cat demonstrates the influence Alfred Hitchcock had on Argento early in his career.

The director sizing things up on the set of ‘The Cat O’ Nine Tails.’

The story was adapted from the director’s original screenplay, with a title borrowed from an existing novel. Karl Malden, an American character actor familiar to stateside audiences, was a cast as a blind man who has insight into a recent death. He teams up with a reporter to investigate, and then the bodies start to mount.

The film’s thrilling climax takes place on a rooftop (shades of Vertigo here). The original cut of Cat concluded with an epilogue, which was subsequently deemed “too American.” So, Argento went back to the editing room, trimmed up the rooftop scene and got rid of the coda altogether. Here, transcribed into English for the very first time, are the script pages for the original ending (click to enlarge):

The only surviving image from the epilogue is this German lobby card:

The script pages and the lobby card are part of the extras included with Arrow Video’s pending Blu-ray/DVD combo of The Cat O’ Nine Tails. This limited edition set will be released on February 20th. You can pre-order it on Amazon or by way of MVD.

No less than three years in the making, Synapse Films’ deluxe edition of Suspiria—available on Blu-Ray in North America for the first time ever—is hitting the streets on December 31 in a lavish steelbook edition featuring an exclusive 4K restoration of the original uncut 35mm camera negative, with color correction by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. The 3-disc set (with two 50GB Blu-Rays and a remastered CD soundtrack by Goblin, with additional tracks not included on the previous US release) is crammed with a huge amount of extras and promises to be the definitive home video version of Dario Argento’s most celebrated film. Significantly, it features the original 4.0 LCRS English-language sound mix (in DTS-HD Master Audio) not heard since its theatrical release in 1977.

Those of us who experienced it on the big screen back then—released by 20th Century-Fox’s International Classics in a slightly trimmed R-rated version—will never forget its eye-popping, ear-blasting, brain-frying impact. This very dark fairytale, the last film to be shot on classic 3-perf Technicolor film-stock a la Hollywood’s Golden Age, follows the terrifying adventures of aspiring American ballerina Suzy Banyon (cult queen Jessica Harper) who arrives at Bavaria’s most prestigious dance academy on a dark and stormy night, only to discover it’s the home of a diabolical coven of witches… and a surreal, nightmarish funhouse of grotesque shocks. It had the same impact on fans of ultraviolent splatter, the luridly macabre and the gleefully fucked-up as the same year’s Star Wars did on normal people.

When the Synapse release, coming hot on the heels of their other Argento steelbook editions for Phenomena and Tenebrae, showed up for preorder on Amazon for a steep $89.95, the blogosphere ignited with the indignation of those who’d neglected to pre-purchase a copy through synapse-films.com for under $50 late this summer. As of today, Synapse has announced a near sell-out of their introductory-priced stock, but orders for the few remaining steelbooks may still be placeable by calling them at (734) 494-3502. Peerless online DVD and Blu-ray store diabolikdvd.com has it for $52.99.

This October two versions of Dario Argento’s Suspiria have been making the rounds at independent movie theaters across the country following the discovery of an Italian-language 35MM cut in an abandoned theater in Italy. In addition to that Synapse films finally finished their 4K restoration of Suspira (which took nearly four years) and released it as a gorgeously packaged Blu-ray which is also screening in selected theaters through the end of 2017. So, in light of it being a very Argento October this year—to say nothing of his courageous daughter’s stand against Harvey Weinstein—let’s take a look at some of the artwork that has been used on movie posters, DVD releases, a few lobby cards, and even a vintage VHS tape for Argento’s goretastic films.

Some of the artwork and photography that follows is graphic especially when it comes to the covers created for various re-releases of Argento’s films put out by Arrow Video. But since we’re talking about a director who has been affectionately referred to as the “The Italian Hitchcock,” you should know to expect lots of blood, gore, and massive head trauma by way of sharp objects. YAY!

An arresting image by artist Enzo Sciotti for the 1984 film ‘Heavenly Bodies’ (billed in Italy as ‘Scratch Dance’).

During the 1970s and 1980s, Italian artist Enzo Sciotti created hand-painted artwork associated with the films of many influential directors who hailed from his home country, such as Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava, the son of the great Mario Bava.

Born in Rome in 1944, Sciotti got started drawing professionally at a very young age—fifteen according to his online biography. Sciotti’s bio also states that he has been responsible for over three thousand movies posters. Sciotti has lent his talent to album artwork as well—specifically the cover of the stellar soundtrack for Phenomena, Dario Argento’s 1985 film starring Donald Pleasence and a fifteen-year-old Jennifer Connelly.

Most of what follows showcase blood and nudity, which means it’s NSFW.

The artwork for the 1986 film by Lamberto Bava, ‘Midnight Killer’ by Enzo Sciotti.

A couple of days ago, The Chicago Cinema Society released the news that they had recovered a nearly pristine 35MM uncut Italian-language print of Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece, Suspiria. According to the TCCS, the print was discovered in a storage area in an old cinema in Italy that was no longer in business. Now, these are the kind of treasure hunting results I can really get behind.

The beloved film has been in the news lately—specifically due to the modern remake by director Luca Guadagnino starring Tilda Swinton that has lots of people preemptively shaking their heads. There is also a highly anticipated Blu-ray restoration of Suspiria set to be released by Synapse Films. Synapse worked with Suspiria‘s visionary cinematographer, Luciano Tovoli who oversaw every last detail of the restoration which is due out sometime this summer.

While the discovery of the 35MM print in Italy is spectacular in its own right, the folks at The Chicago Cinema Society were not prepared to find that the 98-minute, six-reel print was completely uncut meaning it included scenes that had been previously removed for various U.S. and international releases.

Dario Argento’s impressive directorial debut, the 1970 Italian giallo, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, has just been given the 4K restoration treatment by Arrow Video, and on June 20th, Arrow’s limited edition Blu-ray/DVD set will be released. The package is well on its way to being sold out, but more on that in a moment.

In addition to this being his first time behind the camera, Argento also wrote The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. Inspired by the 1949 pulp novel, The Screaming Mimi, the film concerns an American writer working in Italy who randomly witnesses a woman being stabbed by a mysterious figure clad in black—but is that really what he saw?

At this early stage, Argento was very much influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, particularly Psycho (1960), though Hitch’s The Birds (1963) gets a few nods here, too. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a mystery thriller/crime drama, with elements common in later slasher films—all characteristics of the giallo genre. The idea of being trapped, like a bird in a cage, is a frequent theme, resulting in a claustrophobic, tense atmosphere.

Some Argento trademarks are already on display here, like the framing of brutal murders at the hand of a mysterious killer, and the use of vivid colors—especially red. He’d really come into his own with Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977), but The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a praiseworthy first outing for the director and very much worthy of your film library.

The cover of Cinefantastique magazine featuring an image of Asia Argento, a bunch of blood and a razor blade with a job to do. The image is based on her father’s 1996 film ‘The Stendhal Syndrome.’ Illustration by David Voigt.

Originally the long-running film magazine Cinefantastique was just a little fanzine that was compiled with the help of a mimeograph machine in 1967. A few years later it became a highly regarded proper magazine known for its use of lustrous photos and exhaustive critical analysis of films by a team of writers that included the founder of Video Watchdog Tim Lucas along with future Stephen King collaborator, writer, and director Mick Garris. The vision of Cinefantastique publisher and editor Frederick S. Clarke was to ensure that the magazine was a category killer when it came to its approach in the treatment of cinema, taking the art of scrutinizing a film to a new level by providing expansive articles that expertly dissected every aspect of a movie instead of churning out fluff pieces like their competitors.

Another aspect that set Cinefantastique apart was the indulgent use of color photography in its layouts and covers. In addition to the use eye-popping photos, the magazine often featured creative illustrations on the cover done by various artists such as Roger Stine, sci-fi illustrator Barclay Shaw, John Carl Schoenherr (who created the iconic cover illustration for the dust jacket art of Dune), and Andrew Probert who is best known for his colorful contributions to the 1985 film Back to the Future and 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Some of the magazine’s more memorable illustrations were done by Stine and his cover for Cinefantastique that featured a surreal image of Sissy Spacek dripping in blood in 1977 (Volume six, Number one) won the artist critical acclaim. Cinefantastique still maintains an online presence as well as offering access to their extensive back-catalog of interviews and retrospectives. Physical copies of the magazine are also pretty easy to come by. Some of the images that follow are slightly NSFW.

Dennis Hopper (dressed as his character ‘Lt. Boude “Lefty” Enright’) and director Tobe Hooper on the set of the 1986 film, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2’.

As I know many of our Dangerous Minds readers are also fans of movies that curdle even the blackest of blood-types, I’m sure that you will enjoy ogling these “behind the scenes” shots from some of my favorite horror films like Dario Argento’s Suspiria, the second installment of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw franchise, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (that features a chainsaw-wielding Dennis Hopper, pictured above), and the films of the great John Carpenter, among others.

Dario Argento goofing around on the set of his 1977 film, ‘Suspiria.’

Images of Dario Argento not being laser-serious for a change on set (pictured above), to candid photos of actors hanging out during their downtime still dressed like their gory characters, as well as amusing shots of FX master, Tom Savini in action happily creating fiends that have frequented your nightmares for the last few decades, follow. That said, some of what you’re about to see should be considered NSFW. But you knew that the minute I said “chainsaw massacre,” right?

Director John Carpenter with P.J. Soles and John Michael Graham on the set of ‘Halloween,’ 1978.

In light of the loss of yet another rock legend last week, prog-rock pioneer, keyboardist and composer Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer or ELP, I thought I’d share this video of Emerson in the studio with director Dario Argento working on the soundtrack to Argento’s 1980 film, Inferno.

The critical reception to Emerson’s Inferno soundtrack didn’t see it receive the same accolades as the Goblin-composed Suspiria‘s music did, which is understandable on many levels, but the fact is that Argento specifically requested that Emerson create something far different than Suspiria‘s much loved score.

This past week, the strongest rumors yet of a Hollywood remake of one of the most influential Italian films ever made, Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece Suspiria, came from a Tweet by writer Alex Heller-Nicholas, the author of the 2015 book, Suspiria: Devil’s Advocates.

According to Nicholas, director Luca Guadagnino has taken over the helm for the remake of Suspiria that will be set in the same year as the release of the original film (1977) but with the location shifted to Berlin. Nicholas’ Tweet also noted that the remake will include actress Tilda Swinton (and perhaps the rest of the cast of Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash—Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson). Squeee! While I generally shudder at the mere mention of the word “remake” (especially when it comes to horror films), it’s promising that this genre defining film would be reinterpreted by a director who doesn’t rub shoulders with Hollywood elite. The film is set for a tentative release in 2017, which will mark Suspiria’s 40th anniversary. But let’s get back to the eye-popping point of this post.

If you’ve never seen Suspiria (which, if you consider yourself a fan of horror films, I find hard to believe), I hope that the day-glow stills from this groundbreaking film I’ve put together for this post change that. Every camera set-up was a work of art. Argento himself has said that he was attempting to “reproduce the color” from Walt Disney’s animated technicolor film from 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . The prime colors were enhanced by the use of “imbibition” Technicolor prints. This process—also used for The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind—makes for much more vivid color reproduction. Historically, Suspiria was one of the last films to be processed in Technicolor.

Even if you have seen Dario Argento’s Suspiria I suggest that you put on some sunglasses, turn off the lights, and enjoy the following neon-colored, nightmarish stills from the film. If you need me, I’ll be under the bed (and as far away from barbed-wire as possible).

Using the art of “one point perspective” (an approach to art that began as early as the 15th century in Europe that utilizes a “vanishing point” on the horizon point of the image) two Italian twin brothers (working under the moniker Van Orton Design) took on the task of digitally reimagining movie posters based on cult films from directors like Dario Argento and Wes Anderson, in vivid electric neon color schemes.

Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977)

Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Although the twins used modern methods to obtain their striking results, there is a distinct old-school feel to their posters that homage some of cinema’s greatest achievements of the past 50 years. The brothers, who appear to prefer to remain nameless and obscure their faces with masks, have also managed to have the films be seen through fresh eyes due to their unique presentation and interpretation of different, unforgettable scenes in the films themselves. Such as the moment Marcellus Wallace unfortunately strolled in front of the beat up Honda that Butch Coolidge was driving in Pulp Fiction (pictured above) before everything goes to shit for both of them. Bonus? A few of the twins’ prints and other works are available for purchase, here. Many images that may require sunglasses (or an extra tab of LSD in your morning coffee if that’s how you roll) to maximize your enjoyment, follow.

The Giant Spider Invasion (Japan). Based on the low-budget 1975 film produced by Transcentury Pictures, directed by Bill Rebane

As a huge fan of horror films, especially those of the vintage variety, I really enjoyed pulling together this post that features foreign-made film posters advertising various horror films from the 1960s and 1970s.

Suspiria (1977) movie poster (Italy)

The best thing about movie posters made for consumption outside the U.S. is that they are so much more adventurous. Few of these posters would have ever seen the light of day in a U.S. theater lobby due to their their liberal use of unorthodox imagery and nudity. Some of what follows may be considered NSFW—which is precisely why you MUST see them!

By now, it’s safe to say that those who really dig horror films recognize the brilliance that is Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977). Critics frequently include it in “best-of” lists in the horror genre, and the Italian production has also been cited as one of the greatest films of all time, period. There are many reasons Suspiria is revered, but one sequence in particular has been singled out for its noteworthiness: it’s the most brutal murder scene in the history of cinema.

Argento integrated a diverse set of influences into the making of Suspiria, including German Expressionism, the Technicolor vibrancy of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (he saw the protagonist of Suspiria, Jessica Harper, as his Snow White), as well as psychoanalysis. He also played the music of the Italian group Goblin on set to create the necessary mood. The band had scored his previous picture, Profondo Rosso (a/k/a Deep Red), and they would also create, in collaboration with Argento, the unforgettable music for Suspiria. The director’s ultimate goal was to create a dream-like, unreality for the film.

Set in a prominent dance academy in Germany, Suspiria stars Harper as an American student who transfers to the school and soon begins to suspect something within those hallowed walls is not quite right. She has only just arrived at the academy when another student is murdered. This is the killing Entertainment Weekly has called “the most vicious murder scene ever filmed.” Though cinemaphiles could debate this distinction endlessly, it is difficult to think of one more graphic. The imagery is so intense it had to be significantly edited before it could be released in US theaters. And it’s not just the on-screen violence that renders the sequence notable; like the rest of the film, it’s beautifully shot and fantastic, yet completely engaging, and with Goblin’s beyond unnerving score in place, totally terrifying.

Solid scarlet coats the outer walls of this house of blood [the dance academy], spreading inside via wallpaper and drapes in an expressive series: décor, wine, nail varnish, lipstick as well as its most potent source, human blood. Arterial red is complimented by venous blue with which it alternates by means of velvet curtains and wallpaper as well as lighting. Blue shades range from indigo to purple, at times shifting to sickly green. This Technicolor palette vibrates in us intensively, oppressing but at the same time arousing us.

Sound techniques with an exaggerated, hyper-real echo are deployed as affective devices. The electronic chords and discords of the rock band Goblin create a rich sound texture in Suspiria. Whirring, sawing and hollow booming without any diegetic source [sound whose source is visible on the screen] grate on the spectator’s hearing mechanisms and stimulate anxiety, as in the jarring electronic chords before the first murder we witness that sound like the twittering of bats.

In Argento’s films, elaborate pursuit, torture and murder produce tactisigns [virtual sensations; i.e., we feel what the characters feel] to excruciating degrees. Inflicted by mostly invisible torturers, their affective potency is increased by the lack of any distancing subject/object split. This is further intensified by extreme close-up. Knife blades dominate the screen as they gash into flesh, and internal organs are torn loose and exposed.

Okay, are you ready? If you’re a wine drinker, I suggest pouring yourself a glass of your favorite Italian red to have on hand to calm your nerves—trust me, you’re gonna need it.